


Operation: Black Orlov

by CharbroilLaFlamme



Series: A Way Out: Fragments of Story [1]
Category: A Way Out (Video Game)
Genre: 1970’s, Anti-Hero, Foreshadowing, Gen, Heist, Male Protagonist, Mild Language, Mild Spoilers, Not Shippy, Smoking, Spoilers, The Black Orlov, Thief, Trust, deal making, tired writing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-27 17:24:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15029510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharbroilLaFlamme/pseuds/CharbroilLaFlamme
Summary: So this here is pretty all over the place because I am very sleepy writing this. But hopefully it’s coherent enough. I basically wanted to explore into Harvey’s mind and how he “befriended” Leo. It jumps around but mostly because I wanted to get to the significant interactions between them.





	Operation: Black Orlov

Harvey hailed from upstate New York. He lived, breathed, thought, and ate quickly.

He was well off, and usually kept his projects short and sweet.

But he wanted to take the Black Orlov heist slow and steady. He was looking for a long term relationship with _this_ project.

Then he’d met Leo one day, some months ago.

Harvey had quickly figured he was a natural-born criminal when the fellow figured out that he wasn’t at all a “self-made man” like he’d said.

Though impressed, Harvey kept his distance. Leo had the touch of a grifter in him. Someone who’d been at this for a long, _long_ time.

But he’d eventually slip up.

A deal’d fall through. Perhaps his overly trusting nature would send him spiralling downward, to crash and burn.

Harvey’d been there; burned by a bad deal. But never again. A scammer had run off with a pretty significant chunk of profits.

So he took his sweet time. Learning more about this whelp—family man, father, promising fence, and a cocky go-getter. Enough for him to decide on proposing a deal to the scraggly mutt.

He was almost _too_ good to be true.

And if it came to it, Harvey would have to double-cross him first.

Harvey had decided it was best that the two had a meeting on equal ground. Months after they’d become acquainted. it wouldn’t be hard to get him interested.

Harvey’d been at this game for years, from his late teens. Gathering contacts, graduating from petty robbery to calculated heists, in just under twenty years. Accumulating “income” by the bucket.

The Black Orlov was going to be his biggest break yet.

And he’d had a lot of good breaks.

 

* * *

 

“So what’s the deal? Why d’you wanna talk to me?” They were seated in a diner. Face to face, sitting on a red leather booth, menus untouched.

“I’ll skip the spiel,” Harvey said, “You ever hear about the Black Orlov, Leo?” Harvey asked, sliding a museum pamphlet to Leo’s half of the table.

“The Black Orlov?” Leo squinted at the glossy piece of paper. “What about it?” He inquired, opening the folded paper to read.

“Well...where to start? Said to be cursed, and gathering dust in a glass cabinet...” Harvey said quietly, leaning forward for Leo to hear. “And it is ripe for the pickin’.”

“Something like that... like that...” he trailed away, placing the pamphlet down on the varnished wood surface before him. He took in a breath.

Harvey finished for him. “Could be fenced for over a _million_... to the right buyers.” Harvey added, smugly.

“You’re crazy, Harv.” Leo said.

“So you in?”

“This is... _wow_...” Leo contemplated, light-headed from the mere concept of such a heist. For a drudging moment, Harvey thought that maybe Leo would _decline_ the job.

“This is one _hell_ of an undertaking.” But then the gruff fellow extended a hand to him. “But I like your moxie.”

“You’re a smart man, Mister Caruso.” Harvey said, clutching Leo’s hand in a firm shake. “This deal could do great things for your family, Leo. You could get yourselves a _mansion_ with that kind of income. A _real_ home.”

“That’s what I’m planning on. If all this goes down how it should...”

“Trust me, Leo, it _will_.”

The two picked their menus up afterward.

 

* * *

 

Since then, Harvey had been planning. And plotting.

And he’d even gotten ahold of an old friend. A sweetheart of a gun-dealer. Real piece of work, that Jasmine. Snippy, sassy, fierce.

And quite the catch, in Harvey’s book.

For some time. She’d managed to evade Harvey, but he had his ways.

Months later, Harvey and Leo found themselves driving into Jasmine’s vicinity, who was in her car on the side of some shady little ghost town. Abandoned for ages after the rest of the town dissolved and everyone dispersed from it.

Since then, the place was riddled with empty buildings. Glass windows were smashed, and the contents through them scavenged.

A perfect little place off the grid to conduct illicit deals.

She was wearing bell bottoms, and pumps, with a purple low cut top, and a set of gold chains—perhaps gilded—hanging from her neck and a pair of hoop earrings. Her lips coated in a dark red matte lipstick and a rich, dark purple eyeshadow.

She watched another car pull in, Harvey.

Jasmine tilted the rearview mirror toward the vehicle as it approached.

Her eyes narrowed. Noticing there were two figures occupying the sedan. She swore under her breath.

Harvey pulled to the side of the road and stepped out of the driver’s side.

Leo got out himself, “Alright, what’s the plan, man?”

“The plan is _I_ do the talking and when she ain’t eating out of the palm of our hands, then we add some sugar to the coffee. You get me?”

“Right,” Leo casted a glance to the back of the car. “If _that_ don’t work?”

“Oh, trust me, it _will_. She might be stubborn, but you just have to speak her language.” He said, then shut his door. “ _Cash_.”

Harvey and Leo got to her car, and Harvey gestured to her to roll the window down.

She complied.

After the window was down, she looked at them, then glanced at Leo—who was wearing an orange and blue Hawaiian shirt and ripped denim jeans, hands tucked in the pockets.

She leaned out the window to inspect him closer—he smelled like a combination of sweat and dirt.

She hung an arm over the side of the door, then she blew a small spout of smoke at Leo. “Who’s _this_ joker?” She quipped as Leo winced away the smoke in his face.

Leo opened his mouth, but Harvey spoke before him.

_Remember the plan, numb-nuts_ , Harvey said with a jolting glare.

“This is Leo. Leo Caruso.”

“Oh, his name’s _Leo_.” She said, sardonically dismissive, then she scoffed as she opened the door to confront Harvey. “I don’t deal with strangers, Harv. It’ll take a lot more payment than we agreed on before I’ll even think of doing any business with this punk here.” She flicked the butt of her cigarette at Leo’s boot.

Leo stepped back, crossing his arms. He didn’t speak, lest he say something he shouldn’t.

“I know, so I came prepared.” He tilted his head at the car he and Leo had taken to get there. “ _Caruso_.”

Leo nodded affirmatively, jogging over to the trunk of the Sedan.

He popped the back open, leaning in to move aside a few things.

Harvey whistled briefly for her attention after Leo returned.

She looked over to see a very professional-looking briefcase which Leo was cradling in two arms. She cocked a brow.

Harvey entered the code on it and popped it open.

The damn thing was near _brimming_ with cash.

Jasmine’s eyes widened. Her mouth half open.

“Leo and I were thinking you could get us some artillery.” He flashed a winning half-smile. “Does _this_ change your mind, doll-face?”

“For _that_ much, I can get you _anything_ , baby.”

She rounded her car and lifted the back open, revealing the goods.

Leo craned his neck to see past her, the muzzle of a gun glinted in the dying sunlight.

 

* * *

 

Hours after the transaction with Jasmine, the pair were well on their way. The plan was to talk to Leo’s wife about the whole thing.

“So you have a kid, right?” Harvey said as they drove back toward the city that Leo called home.

“Yeah,” Leo said.

“He’s a good kid, right?”

“What kind of question is _that_? ‘Course he is.”

“Well, you’re not exactly a model parent.”

“‘Scuse me?”

“Think about it, Leo.” Harvey said. “You know what you’re doing right?”

“Yes, but it isn’t for me, Harv.” Leo said, looking out the window, he cast his gaze out to the horizon. “Long as Alex doesn’t learn about it...”

“But you never know, Leo. It’s better to be prepared.”

“Linda’ll know what to do. She always knows how to handle... situations.”

“Say she doesn’t—“

“Well, she _does_.” Leo fired back before Harvey could finish. “I married her because she knew how to fix broken things.”

“Like _you_?” Harvey snorted at the cheesiness of the line.

“Yeah.” He leaned back in his seat. “We both came from bad places in life. And our broken pieces ended up fitting good together.” He chuckled. “A good, whole kid came from two busted people dealt a bad hand in life. I don’t wanna see him go down the same path. Funny how that works, huh?”

“Life’s full of surprises, Leo.”

“You got that right.”

A moment passed, Harvey proposed a rhetorical question. “So, what if you killed someone?”

Leo sighed. “Never thought of it. Why?”

“You know, you might have to. Way I see it.”

“I’d rather not.”

“But it’s either that or the job’s scotched by a witness we just so happened to miss.”

“Then I’ll just lay ‘em out.” Leo said. “Problem solved. Nobody dies.”

“We got guns for a reason, Leo. Say your pacifist approach doesn’t work. What then?” Harvey stared at the road.

“I... I, uh...” Leo ran his fingers through his hair. A nervous, implacable chill got to him. He had briefly forgotten about dealing with Harvey’s friend. And the armoury sitting in their trunk.

“My point exactly, Leo. _What if they drew first?_ ”

“I’d... be shit outta luck.”

The car ride became awkward. Leo grew silent.

“It’s _business_ , Leo.” Harvey said after a while. “And in this business, you sometimes won’t have the time to negotiate. Either _you_ take the shot, or _they_ will.”

“Right.”

“I’m just trying to watch your back, Leo. Us businessmen have to stick together. All _you_ need to do is trust me.”


End file.
